The convention on the rights of the child in Israel

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), approved in 1989, was the ultimate legal milestone for the recognition of the child as a subject of rights by the United Nations (UN), being ratified by all the UN member countries, with the exception of the United States of America.

This article analyses the CRC implementation in Israel State. By ratifying the Convention, Israel formally accepted the obligation to adapt its national laws in light of the Convention principles. The main source of this research is the reports sent by the Israeli Government and by non-governmental organizations to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is the UN body responsible for monitoring the CRC implementation process. This work attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How are the CRC principles incorporated by the national law? ; (2) Which socio-historical conjunctures delimit successes and failures on this implementation? and; (3) What are the main  violations against the rights of children who are under the Israel State jurisdiction?

Israel’s case study is very relevant for the children’s right discussion due to its sociopolitical situation. Israeli society is highly divided in religious, ethnical, political and socioeconomic fields. In a country peopled by different waves of immigrants and built on the Arab-Israeli conflict scenario, the immigrant child, the Palestinian child and the obscure legal status of the Occupied Palestinian Territories are urgent topics. Thus, fundamental principles of the Convention such as the implementation obligation and the non-discrimination will be focused on this paper.

This presentation is part of a broader comparative research project that investigates the possibilities and limits for the implementation of the CRC in countries of different continents.